Major donors are slashing aid, and Africa is feeling the pain. But the continent’s leaders see a chance to reset and take charge of development priorities, from tax reform to trade talks.
Also in today’s edition: Taxes on alcohol and soda, and a new malaria treatment for newborns
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Dependency, disruption, and reform
Aid budgets from donors were already getting snipped away before the abrupt shutdown of USAID — and for sub-Saharan Africa, “it was brutal,” says Tanzanian member of Parliament January Makamba.
But some African leaders and analysts see a silver lining: A chance, however painful, to break free of old dependencies and push governments to set their own priorities, writes my colleague Ayenat Mersie.
“I saw some people the other day, crying — ‘Oh, I don’t know, [U.S. President Donald] Trump has removed money,’” says former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. “Why are you crying? It’s not your government, it's not your country … This is a wakeup call for you to say: ‘OK, what are we going to do to help ourselves?’”
Across the region, many are asking hard questions: Has decades of aid done what it promised? Or just created dependency?
“Immediately after independence, there came a new thing called development partnership, which led to global development. Which became its own monster industry,” Makamba explains.
In Somalia, where aid made up nearly 18% of gross national income in 2023, Abdihakim Ainte, a senior adviser to Somalia’s interior minister, says: “We’ve been caught in this trap, where we have been waiting and dependent on money after money. And the more money we receive, the more pervasive our addiction becomes.”
Institutions on the continent have hollowed out, says Ebenezer Obadare from the Council on Foreign Relations. There are entire bureaucracies “outsourced” to foreign players. Still, Makamba believes this could be “birth pain,” not “death pain.” Ainte agrees: “In the long run, it will discipline us to really reevaluate and rethink how we work.”
Read: From ‘aid trap’ to ‘brutal’ cuts — African leaders confront a new reality (Pro)
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Big plans, tough start
Indonesia launched a massive free meals program in January to reach 82.9 million children and pregnant women by 2029 — but six months in, only 5 million have been served, and experts are raising alarm.
“It's quite unlikely that in the first year they will get to [the targeted] number,” says Diah S. Saminarsih, founder and CEO of the Center for Indonesia's Strategic Development Initiatives.
Costs are ballooning — projected to hit $22.5 billion next year — and rollout has been rocky, with food poisoning cases, unpaid vendors, and logistical woes across the country’s 922 islands, writes Rebecca Root for Devex.
Still, Peiman Milani, director of the food initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, calls it “tremendously exciting,” and says the local economy focus is smart. But others warn the centralized approach isn’t working.
The government is tweaking the program, but questions remain about funding, delivery, and whether the ambition can match reality.
“Go back to the drawing board,” says Saminarsih. Yet, as The Audit Board of Indonesia’s Rifky Pratama Wicaksono notes, it’s “a model of how leadership can inspire institutional change.”
Read: Inside Indonesia’s plan to feed 83 million people for free
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Vice squad
Big Soda, Big Booze, Big Tobacco — meet Big Tax. The World Health Organization’s “3 by 35” plan calls on governments to hike prices by 50% by 2035, making harmful products less affordable and public health a lot more sustainable.
Why? Because these products are fueling a global epidemic of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. In 2021 alone, noncommunicable diseases killed 43 million people — most in low- and middle-income countries. WHO says the price hike could save lives and raise $1 trillion in the next decade, writes Senior Reporter Jenny Lei Ravelo.
“There’s kind of a sense that we're losing both on the health side and achieving [universal health coverage] … but we’re also failing to raise money for development because of the cuts to aid. This kind of solves both,” says Pete Baker of the Center for Global Development.
Still, most countries aren’t taxing nearly enough. WHO says only 40 countries have hit its recommended tobacco tax level, and alcohol taxes average just 17%. As Baker puts it, they’re “far too low to be effective at the moment.”
But don’t panic — it’s not prohibition; no need to make moonshine quite yet. “We’re just making it less affordable in order for people to probably reduce their consumption,” says Jeremias Paul Jr., WHO’s unit head on fiscal policies for health.
Read: WHO pushes for 50% price hike on tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks
FCDOh-no
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has announced that it is cutting up to a quarter of its staff — and aid organizations worry that development staff within the department will be the worst affected.
FCDO is the main U.K. department responsible for funding foreign aid, but its budget will drop sharply over the remainder of the decade after the U.K. government announced plans to cut aid spending from 0.5% of gross national income to just 0.3%.
Speaking yesterday at a hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament, Oliver Robbins, the most senior civil servant at FCDO, said he anticipated “cuts of between 15% and 25% to overall headcount.”
Bond, a network of U.K. NGOs, warned against further cuts to those staff responsible for aid.
“We are concerned that development staff within FCDO will face the brunt of these cuts,” says Gideon Rabinowitz, director of policy and advocacy at Bond. “After the previous round of UK aid cuts and the rushed DFID-FCO merger, capacity and expertise have already been severely undermined. Further reductions will narrow development expertise within the FCDO and damage the UK’s credibility as a trusted global development partner at a time when global challenges demand urgent attention.”
ICYMI: Inside the UK aid cuts — what will the 0.3% budget cover? (Pro)
Little people, big help
A long-overdue malaria treatment for newborns just got approved — and it’s a big deal. Swiss regulators cleared Coartem Baby, the first version of Novartis’ malaria drug for infants under 4.5 kilograms (10 lbs).
“This is an important addition to the management of malaria in high-burden countries,” says Dr. Jane Achan of the Malaria Consortium. Until now, there’s been no safe formulation for the smallest patients, writes Andrew Green for Devex.
Eight African countries — including Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda — joined the Swiss approval process to fast-track rollout. “It’s the quickest way to include as many countries as possible in a harmonized and stringent regulatory procedure,” says Novartis’ Lutz Hegemann.
Coartem Baby could be available in some countries before the end of the year. Uganda is already moving ahead. “This formulation is quite timely and very important,” Achan says.
Previously, doctors had to improvise, offering fractions of adult doses and hoping for the best. But simply changing the dose can lead to neurotoxicity, Hegemann warns. Novartis had to adjust the ratio of active ingredients.
The company plans to offer Coartem Baby on a not-for-profit basis, and Achan expects the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will cover it. She says she doesn’t expect the price to be an issue.
Demand is still uncertain — malaria in newborns is underresearched, and many health workers don’t think to test infants. That must change, Achan says: It is critical that efforts are made to train health workers on how to utilize Coartem Baby, she adds.
And for parents desperate to help a sick baby, this couldn’t come soon enough. “We have heard from patients how critical that situation is when a baby has a life-threatening disease and there isn’t an approved treatment,” Hegemann says. “That prompted us to embark on this journey.”
Read: First malaria medicine for newborns is approved
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In other news
Save the Children has ended its partnership with the Boston Consulting Group over the private firm’s involvement in Gaza-related projects which the nonprofit deemed “utterly unacceptable.” [The New Humanitarian]
The European Commission’s seven‑year budget proposal, which will be presented next week, would make continued EU development aid to African countries conditional on their success in curbing migration flows to Europe. [Politico]
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has yet to find a new climate envoy following the departure of Kristin Tilley last month. [Financial Review]
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About the author
Helen Murphy
Helen is an award-winning journalist and Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development in the Americas. Based in Colombia, she previously covered war, politics, financial markets, and general news for Reuters, where she headed the bureau, and for Bloomberg in Colombia and Argentina, where she witnessed the financial meltdown. She started her career in London as a reporter for Euromoney Publications before moving to Hong Kong to work for a daily newspaper.
